Chopper the talking ghost

23rd June 2023. Reading Time: 4 minutes General, Famous Paranormal Cases. 1633 page views. 0 comments.

A trip to the dentist is terrifying enough. Clients of Dr. Karl Bachseitz soon found another reason to be scared of a trip to his dental surgery in Neutraubling, Germany. A talking ghost who referred to himself as Chopper!

A trip to the dentist is terrifying enough. Clients of Dr. Karl Bachseitz soon found another reason to be scared of a trip to his dental surgery in Neutraubling, Germany. A talking ghost who referred to himself as Chopper!

In a small dental surgery in Neutraubling, Germany, Dr Karl Bachseitz and his 17 year old dental assistant Claudia Judenmann became known Worldwide for quite a peculiar reason. One day in 1981, a patient leaned over her dental chair to use the spittoon. It seems the bowl shouted back to her "Shut your mouth!" Not an isolated incident, a few days later another patient went to do the same when he heard "Open your mouth wider, stupid!". The voice was a male voice with a Bavarian accent who Dr Bachseitz referred to as Chopper ..... the talking ghost! Chopper was quite the personality apparently. He would interrupt phone calls on the telephone line and also hurl abuse at both patients and Dr Bachseitz during consultations. It wasn't just from the spitting bowl, but from the toilet and the voice would appear from all over the surgery. Chopper even threatened physical violence against Dr Bachseitz and his wife. Young Claudia however, was the only one who was spared from Chopper's wraith. In fact, he spoke quite nicely to her. Clients of the dentist didn't quite enjoy the dentist on a normal day, let alone one where a ghost hurls abuse at them and so they went elsewhere for their dental needs.

Image Source: Strangeco

In 1983, Dr Bachseitz's business was in dire straits from lack of customers and so he decided to take legal action against Chopper. When the police were called, they obviously did not take the claims seriously at first. They swept the premises looking for speakers or electrical devices that could be causing the voice, yet nothing was found. As word spread among the locals keen to experience Chopper, the media soon found out and descended on the dental surgery all eager to meet Chopper. Journalists travelled from all over the World to try and witness Chopper in action. The Regensburg criminal police unit took over the case and created the Soko Geist division, tasked with trying to solve the case. Meanwhile, the media were particularly interested in Claudia who they nicknamed the 'sugar doll' and who would often demonstrate her friendship with Chopper. The cameras loved her and she loved the attention. The local telecommunications company spent 60,000 marks to try and catch a person they believed could be intercepting calls pretending to be Chopper by using a trap circuit. They also refit Dr Bachseitz's bungalow with new telephones and lines thinking this would solve the mystery of Chopper. He of course had the last say stating "I'm still on a good line!"

"Now we're at the end of our tether. Gradually I'm beginning to believe in ghosts" detective inspector Erich Tietz

Claudia was being portrayed as a talented medium and instead of Chopped being the Dentist's ghost, he was now being marketed as Claudia's ghost. She was offered 120,000 marks for exclusive contracts which she supposedly turned down. The next plan was to bring in famous German parapsychologist Hans Bender to try and figure out what was going on. Bender was certain that it wasn't psychic phenomenon, however, the fact that such a famous personality was involved with the case meant that spiritualists from all over the World thought there must be something to it. The media attention while annoying ending up highlighting something interesting to the police. They started to notice something during filming which was focused on Claudia that she would always turn her back to the cameras when Chopper spoke. It wasn't long before Police witnessed the true origin of Chopper ..... Claudia.

On March 3 1983, Claudia, Dr Bachseitz and his wife were taken to the police station for questioning where Claudia admitted she was Chopper. Dr Bachseitz "There may have been something, but it only came from my subconscious". The two took advantage of the tiling and acoustics in the dental surgery and produced what was described as vocal acrobatics as opposed to a form of ventriloquism. It seems there really were some phone calls to the surgery abusive in nature back in 1981 which some speculate could have been the catalyst for the team creating Chopper. Claudia initially thought the calls came from two of her admirers but it could have even been Dr Bachseitz's wife who had made the voice of a goblin on the home phone out of boredom. Perhaps these served as inspiration.

Claudia was given a fine of 1500 marks. Bachseitz and his wife received a much larger fine and also had to compensate the Bundespost with 35,000 marks as compensation for all of the expenses undertaken to solve the case that Dr Bachseitz first reported. Claudia changed her name and retreated from the spotlight. Dr Bachseitz and their wife checked themselves into a mental facility. Chopper, was never heard from again but remains a colourful part of history.

References

https://strangeco.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-dentist-and-his-chopper-fake-or.html

https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/legendaere-spuk-posse-claudias-geist-a-947494.html

https://www.mittelbayerische.de/archiv/1/chopper-der-spuk-aus-dem-spucknapf-11316662

https://www.mumien-monster-mutationen.de/specials/chopper-schlimmer-als-zahnschmerzen/

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